New Horizon - NASA

View of Pluto from Horizon

New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched on January 19, 2006, as part of NASA New Frontier program.  The ambitious mission aimed to send a lightweight, cost-effective spacecraft to Pluto, later evolving into a Kuiper Belt Object mission named Pluto Kuiper Express.

The goal of the mission is to understand the formation of the Pluto system, the Kuiper Belt, and the transformation of the early Solar System. The spacecraft will study the atmospheres, surfaces, interiors and environments of Pluto and its moons. It will also study other objects in the Kuiper Belt.

New Horizons made a close flyby of Jupiter in Feb. 2007 in order to get a gravitational boost enroute to Pluto, shortening its cruise time by about 3 years.  The instruments were exercised successfully and returned exciting Jupiter science to earth, including images of a 200 mile high plume from the active Tvashtar volcano.

The moment, played out on Tuesday to the sound of The Final Countdown by the 1980s glam metal band Europe, marked a historic achievement for the US, which can now claim to be the only nation to have visited every planet in the classical solar system.

“It feels good,” said Alan Stern, lead scientist on the mission. “So many people put so much work into this around the country. We’ve completed the initial reconnaissance of the solar system, an endeavour started under President Kennedy.”

John Grunsfeld, head of Nasa’s science mission directorate, said that images beamed back from New Horizons on its approach showed Pluto to be an “extraordinarily interesting and complex world”.

“It’s just amazing. It’s truly a hallmark in human history,” he said of the encounter with Pluto. “It’s been an incredible voyage.”

Horizon

Bristling with cameras and other instruments, the New Horizons probe was programmed to gather a wealth of images and data as it sped past Pluto and its five small moons, Charon, Styx, Nix, Hydra and Kerberos.

For more details visit NASA.

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